Gloves worn by soccer goalkeepers. (In most of the world the sport known in the US as xe2x80x9csoccerxe2x80x9d is called xe2x80x9cfootballxe2x80x9d.)
Soccer goalkeepers typically wear gloves, which offer some padding to protect hands from the impact of balls traveling at high velocity. Gloves for soccer keepers have to allow normal hand movements and finger sensitivity, because the gloved hands of the goalkeeper are also used for throwing the ball, punching the ball, and carrying the ball. Gloves such as worn by baseball players and ice hockey goalies would not work for soccer keepers, who must preserve the feel of their hands on the ball to accomplish not only catching, but carrying, throwing, and punching the ball.
Injured fingers are a special hazard faced by soccer goalkeepers. In their efforts to catch or deflect balls traveling toward them at high velocity, it frequently happens that a ball will hit a goalkeeper""s hand in such a way as to bend fingers backward. The ordinary gloves that soccer keepers wear do not prevent this, and although some gloves have recently been aimed at better finger protection for soccer keepers, such gloves have not satisfactorily met the requirements for both protecting fingers and preserving freedom of movement and feel for the ball.
The invention of this application aims at a soccer goalkeeper glove that provides substantial protection against thumb or fingers bending backward, while still affording all the ball handling feel necessary for optimum performance. In accomplishing this, the invention recognizes several ways that tension resistant or stretch resistant material can be arranged over the palm face of gloves for soccer goalkeepers in a way that strongly resists back bending of the thumb or fingers wearing the glove. The invention also enhances this back bending protection by providing webbing or inter connections between thumb and fingers of the glove so that adjacent fingers can help resist any back bending force from ball impact on one of the fingers. The invention also arranges these expedients in a way that does not impair the glove wearer""s sense of ball feel or reduce the wearer""s performance in catching, carrying, throwing, and punching the soccer ball.